SEALS AND SEAL SHOOTING 147 



under parts yellowish. A foetus taken from a 

 female that I shot November 14th, 1893, and pre- 

 sumably about six months old, showed the same 

 markings. The texture of the hair was not so 

 fine either as in the harps or harbor seal. In 

 1878, one whelped on the ice between Godbout 

 and Pointe des Monts, about February 20th, and 

 the young was as above described. It was a day 

 or two old when found. These seals bring forth 

 their young regularly on the ice in the gulf, and 

 all those, or nearly all that appear off Pointe des 

 Monts in March are females that have already 

 deposited their young, as shown by the supply of 

 milk in their udders, which is then still abundant. 

 They are thin, and their stomachs and intestines 

 are contracted and knotty. Their object in 

 coming near land is to feed, which they do voraci- 

 ously. Their food consists chiefly of caplin, 

 flounders, sculpins, herring, a species of small 

 shrimp, Norwegian haddock, &c. On such a 

 varied and liberal diet they put on fat at about 

 the rate of one inch per week. Only the 

 males have hoods, and when these are inflated 

 it gives them a very formidable appearance. 

 They are very fierce, and will not hesitate, when 

 wounded, to attack a hunter, on the ice, or in a 

 canoe. As they are of an immense weight and 

 very tenacious of life, they are no mean adver- 

 sary. The females will seldom attack a hunter 

 when in a canoe, but I was told that the female 



